Under the current system, industrial-scale grain producers in France's Paris basin disproportionately benefit from receiving payments, as their outputs were among the highest in Europe between 2000 and 20002.

After representatives of the European Parliament, EU governments and the European Commission thrashed out a deal to axe payments to farms by a maximum of 40% between 2014 and 2020.

The EU currently forks out €50bn (£45.5bn, $65.6bn) in payments under its farming policy and will continue to siphon three-quarters of the total farm budget in the six years to 2020.

Even under the new reforms, agriculture will remain the EU's largest overall expense. It will consume nearly 40% of the EU's €960bn budget for the reform period.